Sheriff: Girl slain on Kan. farm, body was moved

OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) – Authorities believe that a slain 18-month-old girl whose body was found over the weekend was killed on the eastern Kansas farm where her mother and two men were killed, and that the child’s body was later disposed of in the next county.

An Osage County deputy found the girl’s body on Saturday. Although she hasn’t been positively identified, Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said investigators were confident the body was that of Lana Leigh Bailey, who went missing with her mother more than a week earlier.

“The family needed to have this so they can move on,” Richards said at a Sunday news conference. “This helps bring some closure to them. It helps bring closure to all of this investigative team. A crime like this takes an emotional toll, especially when it’s a child.”

Kyle Flack, 27, was charged Friday with capital murder in the deaths of Lana’s mother, Kaylie Bailey, 21, and Andrew Stout, 30. Flack, who served more than four years in a Kansas prison for second-degree attempted murder, was charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder in those deaths, as well as that of Steven White, 31.

Flack was picked up for questioning early Wednesday in Emporia, where officers found the car that Bailey had been driving when she was last seen.

Emporia is in Lyon County, about 50 miles southwest of the rural Ottawa farm in Franklin County where the four killings took place. Osage County, where Lana’s body was found, lies between the two.

Authorities have been reluctant to discuss details of the case, and on Sunday, Richards declined to say where or how the girl’s body was found. He said the Franklin County attorney’s office has taken over the case.

Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting said Friday that a gun was used against the victims at the farm, but he declined to say whether they had been shot. Authorities haven’t said what the motive for the killings may have been.

Flack was expected to appear in court early next week.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)